Let's create a "lesson plan"

[UncleHoney]

About 10 years ago I was involved with helping a local high school develop a new method of teaching science. The technique to be used was called Problem Based Learning. Using this technique we had to develop a set of problems or challanges that students were required to solve.

Each class was divided into groups of 4 or 5 students and given a problem. Each group was required to do their own fact finding studies and record and document their work.

Using this technique to solve some of life's little financial problems may be very effective. Give the students a problem and let them come up with the solutions. Let them find out what it really costs to own a car and buy a house. This requires some really indepth study of each subject to get the right answers.

Some possible problems could be;

Credit card use and costs
Cell phone costs
Car loans and insurance
Home mortgages and costs of ownership
Building a retirement nest egg
Pensions and 401k plans
Social security, what is it, what will you get when you retire

For some indepth information on Problem Based Learning just do a google search.

Just for info the problem we gave the science students was;

A remote station in the artic had weather equipment that could only be attended to once a month during the long artic winter. Their challange was to come up with a heater to keep the battery warm for a month on a single 16 oz tank of propane. Beileve it or not it can be done and they did it, some with gas to spare.

 

[BUM]

Hey, bop wattaya trying to do? Get some teachers fired?

I think its all been said above. This is a great idea. Maybe a life-changer for some kids.

My 2 cents... If you balance your checkbook every month, the world will be yours. The coolest thing is calling the bank to point out their error(s).

 

[dumpster56]

I taught a class of all the above posts, It was called family life. Some listened most went to sleep.

You could make a mint selling pillows before class to the high school seniors these days.

 

[BUM]

You could make a mint selling pillows before class to the high school seniors these days.

It too bad. Unless they get a clue in college, these sleepy, dopey seniors are all doomed. Half a world away there are legions of grads ready willing and able to eat their lunch.

 

[HelpMeRhonda]

Check out http://www.brassmagazine.com/

Young adult oriented mag trying to do something similar.

It appears they are looking for teachers... I'm certain a little real world experience would add greatly to the class.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

It too bad. Unless they get a clue in college, these sleepy, dopey seniors are all doomed. Half a world away there are legions of grads ready willing and able to eat their lunch.

Perhaps we're figuring out why people end up spending too much, saving too little and largely have lousy financial lives...which are the primary cause of screwed up relationships and presumably the divorce rate.

Maybe thats how you grab them...

Slide #1: The divorce rate is 65%. Bankruptcy rate after divorce is xx%

Slide #2: The primary cause of relationship problems and divorce is money problems and bad financial decisions

Side #3: Wouldnt it be a good idea to know how to make better life decisions, better financial decisions, and end up enjoying improved relationships and avoiding the big "D"?

These kids are slow boiled frogs. Have to find a way to throw them in the boiling water directly.

Another tact is to show how advertising and marketing campaigns are primarily designed to fool them into giving up their money. Help give them the tools to avoid getting sucked in.

Role models are also pretty useful. Maybe bring in some people in their 20's that figured it out and can tell the kids what to expect and how they did it.

 

[savedapile]

walk in with a wad of bills and a trash can.

start talking about an imaginary day and as you talk throw them one at a time into the trash can.

for instance: got up this morning, but didn't have time to make coffee so stopped at the 7/11 (two bills in the trash)
didn't have any cash so went to the nearest atm, had to pay a $2 fee (bills in the trash)
was running late to school, drove too fast, got a ticket (two wads of bills, one for the ticket, one for the increase in insurance premiums)
attended classes.  Got home, starving so went to make a sandwich but meat was not good, didn't eat it in time (more bills in trash)
called GF on the cellphone, used up my minutes already but wanted to talk in privacy of room (trash) girlfriend was worried she was pregnant (throw an anchor as well as a lot of bills in trash)
call from a friend, went to mall, used my credit card even though I can't pay it off.  Know I am going to get interest payments (trash)

Then each week pick an important topic to cover.  You can keep the trashcan and ask for ideas on what will fill the trashcan.  On the balance side a piggy bank to fill when you mention a good financial decision.

For instance, the true cost of driving a sportscar vs. reliable transportation.

magic of compounding vs. spending all your cash.

unplanned pregnancy vs. planned pregnancy

how much people make and how much it costs to live. 
find out how much rent etc. goes for in your area and have the kids tell you what they want to spend their money on. Cable, shoes, makeup etc.

This is a generation used to flash, pizazz and bombardment. The pregnancy mention might get you in hot water.

 

[dumpster56]

It too bad. Unless they get a clue in college, these sleepy, dopey seniors are all doomed. Half a world away there are legions of grads ready willing and able to eat their lunch.

Bum

My son the PHD said during his time getting that degree that the guys from China were SCARY!! That they were so efin smart the best we had at that Ivy League University were well having a hard time keeping up with them.

 

[sgeeeee]

So what do YOU wish someone had taught you before you hit the REAL WORLD!?

I wish I learned how to juggle and ride a unicycle.

Also, I wish I learned how to whistle loudly and shrilly like some people do when they put two fingers up to their mouth and blow.

I wish I knew what to say to people when they have suffered great loss and are very sad.

I wish I knew how to repair relationships when people become angry with me.

 

[Dreamer]

I really like Savedapile's idea of the trash can. Great visual and I think they would think about it each time they participated in an activity where they saw the money going into the trash can. Might make them think I am not going to do this again!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

The biggest obstacle to all of this is that most methods of approach require the student to look ahead in their lives, defer instant gratification and see the long term implications of small things done today.

Pretty much what 17/18 year olds don't do well.

So the challenge is how to put it "in the now" or provide immediate beneficial results today...or at least relate the lessons as solutions to immediate problems.

 

[Brat]

I LIKE the trash can visual!!!

Actually the anchor is apt because whether or not a baby is born the impact of a conception will weigh on the relationship forever.

 

[Bram]

I just saw a spot on our local TV news where there was an interview of a lady from the Ohio State University Extension Office. She was discussing 4-H projects & focused on one having to do with "Money Management". She said there are projects from ages 11 & up & they are "activity based". I thought if you check the 4-H website or you local university, you might get some ideas or this might be a target audience for you to consider if you have 4-H in your area.

One example she used was the child researched all the ways one could "purchase" an item: store, auction, consignment shop, ebay, goodwill, dumpster, etc.

 

[riskadverse]

The two most useful things I learned in high school were typing and doing a 1040 income tax form. I'm didn't really like doing either at the time, but both turned out to be tools that benefited me throughout my life. These would be in my "core curriculum".

 

[Nords]

The biggest obstacle to all of this is that most methods of approach require the student to look ahead in their lives, defer instant gratification and see the long term implications of small things done today.

Pretty much what 17/18 year olds don't do well.

Every parent of a teen (current or recovering) has an "Aha!" moment when they read about the fMRI testing of teen vs adult decision heuristics.

When grappling with a decision, adults show cerebral activity as they're evaluating the alternatives. Emotions also play into the decision process in a decidedly minor role.

With teens there's almost no cerebral activity and a huge emotional spike. The amygdala lights up like a Las Vegas billboard.

So when you find yourself asking that perpetual parent's question: "What were you thinking?!?" the answer really is "We weren't."

One example she used was the child researched all the ways one could "purchase" an item: store, auction, consignment shop, ebay, goodwill, dumpster, etc.

Our neighbor teen fashion-plate's comment on Goodwill: "Eeeewww, I wouldn't wear dead people's clothes!"

I give her some slack. Just watching what she's wearing is an excellent "Peter Lynch" method of finding the next hot retail clothing stock. The problem is keeping up with the turnover.

 

[LeatherneckPA]

.....So when you find yourself asking that perpetual parent's question: "What were you thinking?!?" the answer really is "We weren't.".....

ROFLMAO, thanks Nords.

So when does it change? DD is 24, married to a useless SOB, and still "not thinking". I thought chicks were supposed to mature faster thans us "male chauvinist pigs"?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

On the other hand, there are the brain studies that show that in later life, we still "think" with our emotions to a far greater degree than we'd like to believe.

Ok, so we're biologically wired to not think until we're 24, then emotionally wired to not think thereafter.

That explains a lot.

 

[ERD50]

Lotsa great suggestions so far. I had been mulling this around recently, and came up with a few 'guiding principles' - if you learn these and learn how to apply them to a situation, I think it may be more valuable than specific do/don'ts:


1) No Free Lunch - if you can get people to understand this, they will know better than to get involved in email scams, 'hot' stock tips, and more stuff than you could list. Give examples as to why no one is going to give something away below face value.

2) Prioritize Issues - Working on small things, even though you see benefit, may actually put you behind. That same effort may have earned you much more if you worked on the important stuff.

3) Consequence of Decisions or the Law of Unintended Consequences - An example might be the environmental group that is fighting a wind farm as they are afraid it might kill a few birds. OK, but, if they 'win', it might mean that another coal plant gets built - is that what they intended?

4) Understand Cause/Effect and a bit of statistical significance - People are so often worried about the wrong things, or don't understand the cause/effect relationship. Media tends to make a big splash about things when the data is often irrelevant.

Here's another example that ties together 2,3 & 4 - I recently heard on a Science Friday podcast, some relief workers in Africa pointed out that the good intentions of the Gates Foundation in fighting AIDS in Africa may be doing more harm than good. The problem was, that money went to buy expensive drugs, but many more people were dying from poor sanitation. That same money, used to improve sanitation, could help more people and save more lives. Some of the AIDS victims didn't have safe drinking water to take their pills with. The attention to AIDS was, in some ways, distracting form other, potentially bigger needs.

I plan on putting this into some bite size pieces and getting the points across to my kids from time to time. I figured the general ideas would do them more good that 'do this', don't do that'.

-ERD50